New watchmen viral and preachers coming to the screen! That's the stuff geekasms are made of! Didn't know Mendes was already attached to direct Preacher, but that does bode well. Still, there's quite a bit of story to cover from all comics for just one film...

I just can't see Preacher working as a film. There's too much story to cover. I think it could work as a TV series as the comics pretty much end on a cliffhanger each time but I just don't see how they can make it into a film without losing and changing too much. What do other fans think?

... that a lot of what's in the books will not be on the screen. There's just not enough time in two hours. I think the trick for August and Mendes will be to find an interesting thread (one of the many) and give us a satisfying beginning, middle and end. Personally, I hope there's a lot of the second book (Until the End of the World) in there, but only becuase that's my favourite.

This is good news. I really like John August. Both his general professional output, and his other stuff (putting his scripts on his website, delivering great lectures, all that jazz). Hope this bodes well for Preacher.

Although I am happy to hear that this project will now (hopefully) pick up some momentum and (please God) get made, I can't help but feel kind of dissapointed they didn't go with the script that Ennis himself wrote back in 1998 (which was actualy in pre-production at one point before the cancellation of the project over buget issues). I know there wasn't any speculation that they were going to but I personaly would have loved to have seen the Ennis script used, focusing on the "Gone To Texas" Arc it would have made a great origin film that could potentialy spawn a franchise but also have been a very nice self-contained story so that if it was the only film then there would a sense of closure. But I am still very excited and intruiged by any project involving Sam Mendes and I do like all of the films that August has written and any chance of seeing a film of Preacher is welcomed by me.

Because he sounds like a good choice. Hopefully Patrick Stewart will be cast as Starr, Jesse's no-dick nemisis, and Sam Rockwell wilol be cast as Jesse. Please Mendes be on Road to Petition form and don't produce a Jarhead/Revolutionary Road (eg. dull and annoying).

Awesome that this looks to be making headway. There shouldn't be a problem with the adaptation as long as they don't try and cram the whole series into one film, which would be idiocy. Each volume is pretty fertile in terms of plot and characters - Jesse's family background alone is enough for one film. I really want to see Cassidy on film.

...I reckon. I LOVE the book. It's an incredible piece of work, and anything that baits the Catholic church is okay by me. But it's too big for a movie. It's too big for THREE movies. HBO needs to get it sorted and make at least a ten parter, episodes an hour each. This may still not be enough. What's gonna get cut? Most of the Salvation story, if not all, would be an obvious casualty to me, regardless of how great it is. Cassidy's story will be rushed through and Tulip will probably be all wrong. They'll change her character and make her more dependent on Jesse, rather than the other way round. And anyone other than Scott Glenn for the Saint will drag the whole thing down, anyway. So there.

Given the neutering that the Golden Compass got (most of the anti-church stuff was removed making a lot of it puzzling as a film), I would be concerned on the toning down of the highly religious parts of the story. In fact given virtually every page of the comic books is blasphemous, I can't see how they can avoid it! We may well end up with a different film, but Mr Kate Winslet has a good track record for thoughtful films.